Books to inform and inspire

Help is at hand with timely resources for HR practitioners navigating transformational change initiatives and uncertainty. These three books provide valuable guidance.

Hillman, H (2021) EM-PA-THY: The Human Side of Leadership. Auckland, New Zealand: Bateman Books.

Harold Hillman (Managing Director of Sigmoid Curve Consulting Group), based in Auckland, is a clinical psychologist and educator who coaches business leaders and executive teams.

In EM-PA-THY, Harold advances the case for a strong correlation between empathetic work cultures and tangible business outcomes with a focus on employee and customer engagement. His work builds on Daniel Goleman’s ‘Emotional Intelligence’ (EQ) model (1995), in which empathy is a core component. He suggests that ‘empathy’ is “the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes to understand why they think and feel the way they do” (p 4) and that where people believe they have been heard, they are more likely to follow, even if the management decision differs from what they preferred.

Readers may identify with scenarios in the ‘case stories’, which prompt the question, “Can empathy be learned?”. Harold believes it’s possible and explores various approaches in depth, from the complex to simple, for those looking for guidance in ‘Building your empathy toolkit’.

Alilovic, J (2021) Homeforce: Building a connected, engaged homebased team. Perth, Western Australia: 3D HR Legal Pty Ltd.

Jo Alilovic (Director and founder of 3D HR Legal) is an employment lawyer who successfully built her own fully distributed ‘homeforce’ well before others were forced to work remotely due to COVID-19 lockdowns. Many business leaders who experienced tangible benefits from moving office-based work to remote work are now wondering if a transition could be effective long term and, if so, how it can best be achieved.

This timely e-guide considers the advantages and challenges in depth, underpinned by recent research. Jo points out that, while not all jobs can be home-based, some people cannot function effectively from home.

Solutions are suggested for challenges, and a framework for successful implementation is clearly identified, including the details of a ‘homeforce’ employment policy that covers a range of important factors.

Heazlewood, F (2022) Resilience Recipes: Making space for wellbeing that works. Melbourne, Australia: Major Street Publishing.

Author Fleur Heazlewood delivers successful organisational culture transformations and employee wellbeing programmes as a corporate leader, educator, trainer and coach, based in Australia.

This short e-book provides easy to read, practical, evidence-based guidance that takes the reader on a self-paced journey to wellbeing. It is packed with useful strategies to develop resilience skills aimed at increasing and sustaining wellbeing, particularly relevant in an environment of endless busyness and rising stress levels.

Three main ingredients: emotional agility, mental adaptability, optimising energy, are fully explored.

Fleur encourages active learning through guided reflection exercises to achieve the goal to “take back your control, prioritise self-care, plug the energy drains and boost the spring in your step with resilience” (p 166).

Ruth Garside, CFHRNZ, is passionate about HR, after a long career in HR and I/O psychology in the United Kingdom and New Zealand as a practitioner, OD consultant, lecturer and researcher. Although retired, she still keeps up to date with employment law and HR initiatives relevant to today’s work environment.